Cowboys Hoping To Avoid Injury Bug in '13

Dallas was hit hard by injuries in 2012 and finished 8-8

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The Dallas Cowboys have adopted a more cautious approach to their offseason workouts this year, and the injury plagued 2012 season is no small reason why.

Six starters on defense alone missed multiple games due to injuries, not counting slot corner Orlando Scandrick, who went down for the season with a fractured hand on Thanksgiving Day. Inside linebacker Sean Lee and safety Barry Church missed 10 and 13 games, respectively, after suffering season-ending injuries. Nose tackle Jay Ratliff struggled with groin and foot issues and ended up missing 10 games as well, and outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware spent much of the season playing with an injured shoulder that would eventually require offseason surgery.

On offense, the running game suffered a mighty blow when DeMarco Murray went down for six games with torn ligaments in his foot.

If it sounds bad, that’s because it was was--bad enough to have influenced Dallas in how they approach the offseason. Namely, with a greater emphasis on conditioning.

“While we don’t want to make it an excuse, there’s no question that injury, especially on defense, impacted us last year,” Jones said, per the Dallas Morning News. “So, we’re trying to do as good of a job as we can, looking at some things, changing some things in what we’re doing relative to not getting soft tissue injuries, especially. But I think fresh off of last season, when we thought injuries impacted our season a lot, [it was determined that] we would be more sensitive during this offseason as to being conservative on injury.”

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